What happens when a board of directors is deadlocked? What redress is available for warring camps of shareholders? Is an appointment of a receiver over the entire company the only solution? These were some of the questions asked and answered at the Book Launch of “Company Law: Powers & Accountability - Second Edition,” the newly published leading Hong Kong Company Law text co-authored by William Wong SC, Kerby Lau and Dato Loh Siew Cheang. The launch was held on 23 February in collaboration with publishers, LexisNexis.

To demonstrate when a company may or may not be in a state of paralysis to warrant receivership, William and Kerby discussed some of the unusual standout features in the recent case of Re Birmingham International Holdings Ltd. Kerby also took the audience through when injunctions may be granted to restrain substantial shareholders from acting upon certain resolutions in relation to the change of composition of the board of directors in the ongoing case of Aeso Holdings Ltd.

The presentation was prefaced by an introductory speech delivered by guest speaker, The Hon. Mr Justice Jonathan Harris, and this revolved around how the HK Companies Court's work has evolved in line with the growth of the Chinese economy and Chinese outbound investments. He also referenced the fact that although HK does not yet have a statutory cross-border insolvency regime, the HK court has been developing the common law rapidly to meet practical needs. Given that Hong Kong is at the vanguard of the development of common law cross-border insolvency assistance in terms of being one of the leading jurisdictions in Asia, the new chapters of the book concerning Fight over Board Control and Cross-border insolvency resonated with our guests at the Launch.

The evening presentation was MC’d by Jen Lee of LexisNexis, and wrapped up with a book signing over cocktails.

The urbane setting at Eaton House lent itself to a casual atmosphere ideal for networking at this well attended event.